Profile America — Sunday, August 25th.Visitors from all over the world are crowding into the Smithsonian Museum of American History this summer. Among the many artifacts in its collection are key U.S. inventions. One was donated to the museum in August 1985, to mark the 25th anniversary of its commercial debut — the original Xerox 914 copying machine. Weighing in at just under 650 pounds, the 914 could produce seven copies per minute. The principle of xerography — producing images on paper using electricity — was invented in 1938 by lawyer-scientist Chester Carlson, who saved future generations from having to deal with carbon paper. Making photocopying equipment in the U.S. is part of a $2.2 billion a year business. You can find more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau, online at www.census.gov.

Sources: National Museum of American History2007 Economic Census, NAICS 333315

Profile America is produced by the Center for New Media and Promotions of the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments, ready to air, on the Internet at http://www.census.gov (look for "Multimedia Gallery" by the "Newsroom" button).